The typical online transaction involves communications between several independently operated actors. For example, when a consumer initiates an online transaction with a merchant for a good or service, the consumer usually provides credit card information to the merchant. Thereafter, the merchant processes the credit card information and communicates it to the merchant's acquiring bank. The acquiring bank then contacts the issuing bank for the consumer's credit card, and requests appropriate payment from the consumer's account. After payment is received from the issuing bank, the acquiring bank provides the payment to the merchant in exchange for the good or service.
Because credit cards have historically been the primary form of payment in online transactions, the actors involved in such transactions, including merchants, have typically designed their infrastructures around the credit card format. As a result, the systems implemented by these actors to process online transactions have been routinely designed so as to understand and process credit cards as the principal form of payment, and very few if any other forms of payment. The landscape for online transactions is changing, however, as many payment providers are now offering alternative methods of electronic payment (AMOP's), which give consumers additional options for completing purchases.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved online transactional systems, methods, and computer program products for enabling legacy systems to process AMOP's.